Cilada Diabólica

Released the same year as Aldrich's "hush hush sweet Charlotte" which it sometimes recalls, "nightmare" is a good effort in the enjoyable Hammer productions .

This is roughly a two-part screenplay;IMHO,the second one surpasses the first.It look be performed on stage and the final unexpected twist is worthy of Agatha Christie's celebrated "The mousetrap" .The Gothic atmosphere ,in Janet's desirable mansion ,gives the jitters."It will be alright" says the servant to the tormented young girl as an ominous wind begins to howl.

Superbly filmed in black and white,and without today's special effects which mar so many stories.

Jimmy Sangster's screenplay for "Nightmare" is an excellent contemporary (early 1960s) thriller with Gothic touches. However, the script falters about halfway through when the young heroine Janet, who has been driven almost out of her mind by a series of terrifying events, is removed from the action of the story.

Instead of centering the action of the second half on characters sympathetic to the heroine who might take up her cause, identify the conspirators and bring them to justice - as happens in, for example, "Psycho" - the script reveals to the audience who the conspirators are, and then, until the final scene, makes them the center of the action.

It is asking a lot of an audience to identify with those whose machinations have brought about the committal of a sympathetic heroine, and this may well explain why the second half of "Nightmare" is less gripping than the first - especially as the plot of the second half is a variation on what has gone before, this time with an unsympathetic character experiencing terrifying events. This part of the screenplay also stretches credibility, since it seems unlikely that an antagonist with an alert and cunning mind would not detect a plot which is dividing him from his female accomplice.

The real strength of "Nightmare", however, is in director Freddie Francis' visual flair. A former cameraman/director of photography, using black and white 'scope and obviously influenced by his work on Jack Clayton's "The Innocents", he succeeds in creating a real sense of fear and isolation around his vulnerable heroine.

He achieves this by using the expanse of the 'scope frame, often surrounding Janet with shadows or, in daylight, setting her in a frame devoid of anything or anybody reassuring. For example: when Janet travels home from school, the railway station is almost deserted; we do not see the departing train from which she has presumably just alighted. There are no other cars on the road as she is driven home. As they pass the asylum she dreads, there are no signs of human activity within the grounds. Once back home she is dwarfed by the mansion "High Towers" she has become heir to, and her isolation is compounded by her home being located in remote snow-covered countryside.

Janet's isolation is social as well as physical; ostracized at boarding school in the early scenes, and clinging to a grotesque doll and a small transistor radio, she is never seen with anyone her own age (mid-teens). Her only friend at the school is a sympathetic teacher. At "High Towers" the guardian she dotes on, Henry Baxter, is at least twice her age - as are her other household companions.

In addition to traditional Gothic trappings (heroines wandering dark corridors in flowing night-dresses, candlelight illumination, door handles seen turning slowly and ghostly nocturnal figures) Freddie Francis endows several everyday objects with fearful connotations - Janet's doll, her transistor radio that forever blares out fast jazz, and above all, a birthday cake with lighted candles. The latter becomes a powerful image of dread, since it was on Janet's eleventh birthday the horrific event occurred that started the cycle of nightmares and fear of inherited insanity.

"Nightmare" has a particularly bleak atmosphere: most of the action is set during a harsh winter, the dialogue has virtually no humor and the ending - which should give the audience a sense of satisfaction - is grimly downbeat. This is probably because in achieving justice for Janet, her sympathizers have virtually duplicated the methods of the conspirators and brought about a similar result - a gruesome death and a woman on the edge of madness.

Highly recommended viewing.

One of Hammer Films' best psychological-shockers features a marvellous British cast, great black and white cinematography, and solid direction by veteran horror filmmaker Freddie Francis. Like so many of Hammer's psychological scare flicks, the plot-within-a-plot owes much to the 50's French classic DIABOLIQUE, but this is still a moderately creepy little thriller.

Young Janet (Jennie Linden) saw her insane mother stab her father to death when she was a little girl. Years later she's still traumatized by it and is afraid she'll become insane like her mother. Her guardian Henry (David Knight) and nurse Grace (Moira Redmond) try to help her but she starts going mad...

This turns out to be nothing more than a reworking of the French film "Diabolique"--but it's pretty good. I have to admit I was actually surprised by one or two events that I should have seen coming. The film is shot in moody black & white (and Hammerscope) which helps immensely. Also there are good performances--especially by Knight and Redmond. This was a strange movie for Hammer--it wasn't shot in color and had no monsters. Still it works. Recommended. I give it a 7.

When was an eleven year-old child, Janet witnessed her insane mother stabbing her father to death on their bed. Six years later, Janet (Jennie Linden) is a wealthy teenager outcast in a boarding school afflicted by dreadful nightmares and fearing to have inherited her mother´s insanity. After a series of nightmares, her teacher Mary Lewis (Brenda Bruce) brings Janet home and she is welcomed by the family chauffeur John (George A. Cooper), by his wife and housekeeper Mrs. Gibbs (Irene Richmond) and by the beautiful nurse Grace Maddox (Moira Redmond), who was hired as a companion by her guardian Henry Baxter (David Knight). However Janet continues to have nightmares with a woman (Clytie Jessop) with a scar on her face and wearing a white shroud wandering in the house and stabbed on her parents´ bed. After trying to commit suicide, two doctors and Henry summon Janet to the living room to decide whether she should go to an asylum. When Henry brings his wife to the room, Janet sees the woman with scar and stabs her to death. She is sent to an institution and soon a diabolical plot is disclosed. What will happen next?

"Nightmare" is an underrated and unknown thriller by Hammer, with a great story of greed and insanity. The plot is predictable but also engaging. The black and white cinematography and the camera work are magnificent. Jennie Linden never convinces as a teenager but the rest of the cast is excellent. The hysterical behavior of women on the 60´s is annoying but a reality in those years. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Cilada Diabólica" ("Devilish Entrapment")